The president, Joe Biden, affirmed this Thursday that he supports making "an exception" and changing the Senate rules on filibustering (which requires 60 votes to pass certain laws) with the aim of legislating on abortion after the decision of the Supreme Court that eliminated the constitutional protection of this right.
"I think we have to codify Roe v. Wade into legislation," he said, referring to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling from half a century ago affirming this right and which was overturned last Friday by the new conservative majority on the court.
"The way to do it is to make sure that Congress votes to do it," Biden told a news conference in Madrid during the NATO summit in the Spanish capital.
Activists in favor of abortion during a protest in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DCJose Luis Magana / AP
"And if filibustering gets in the way," he said, "it should be an exception to filibustering to deal with the Supreme Court decision."
Biden, who was a senator before becoming president, has always been reluctant to support changes to filibustering, which allows any of the 100 members of the Senate to block a legislative measure unless it receives 60 votes to pass.
The Democratic Party now has a slim minority in the Senate (50 seats plus the casting vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the event of a tie with the 50 Republicans), which has blocked almost all major progressive initiatives.
[More than a dozen states ban or limit abortion following Supreme Court ruling. This is the access map]
Earlier this year, Biden already supported circumventing that Senate rule to push for a rule that strengthens voter rights.
Still, Biden's opinion may be irrelevant because Democrats would have to vote as a bloc in favor of this measure, and there are at least two senators who oppose it: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
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"The United States is better positioned to lead the world than it has ever been," Biden said.
"But one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the United States Supreme Court in overturning not just Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy," she stressed.
"I can understand that the American people are frustrated by what the Supreme Court did," added the president.
With information from
NBC News
and
The Associated Press
